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Take Advantage of LGC’s ‘One-Stop Shopping’ Benefits

Did you know that the New Hampshire Local Government Center (LGC) is a nonprofit organization governed by an active board made up of local, municipal, school and county representatives that includes labor, management and elected officials? As a member-driven resource for local governments, the LGC provides numerous supportive programs and services that are designed to strengthen the ability of New Hampshire municipalities, schools and county governments to serve the public.

Benefit and Coverage Offerings

A full range of benefit and coverage offerings are available through LGC’s HealthTrust, Property-Liability Trust and Workers’ Compensation program. “Our overall goal is to help member groups serve their communities as cost-effectively as possible," says LGC’s Executive Director John Andrews.

With savings in mind, LGC introduced its Total Risk Management (TRiM®) program several years ago. It offers LGC member groups the opportunity to earn a contribution credit for completing risk management activities aimed at reducing future claims potential. Developed with member input, the TRiM program places an important emphasis on risk and health management through training requirements related to LGC’s HealthTrust, Property-Liability Trust and Workers’ Compensation lines of coverage. “Nearly 200 LGC groups are currently reaping valuable benefits from TRiM," says Jon Steiner, LGC’s Associate Executive Director for Member Relations. “Our team of Member Relations representatives is happy to meet with interested groups to provide additional TRiM information upon request."

New Hampshire Municipal Association

Becoming a member of the LGC’s New Hampshire Municipal Association (NHMA)—a nonprofit, non-partisan organization of municipalities—allows your group to take full advantage of all that LGC’s Trusts and Workers’ Compensation program offer and much more! “Membership dues to the New Hampshire Municipal Association have been reduced," Bedford’s Town Manager Russell Marcoux recently noted during the Town Council’s second public hearing on the proposed 2009 town budget. He added that NHMA membership “gives Bedford low rates for health and liability insurance, saving the town far more than it spends on the dues."

The NHMA provides advocacy support for municipal governments plus educational and training programs for local officials and employees. Advocacy activities are governed by a Municipal Advocacy Committee comprised of municipal officials from throughout New Hampshire and are represented at the State House by a dedicated government affairs staff.

“Our legislative staff actively tracked more than 300 bills during the 2008 legislative session and some 40 of those were relevant to NHMA policy positions," NHMA’s General Counsel Maura Carroll points out. Carroll also notes that LGC’s Legal Services attorneys responded to a monthly average of 424 telephone, e-mail and written requests for legal opinions last year. “That was an increase of five percent over 2007," she observes.

Keeping Member Groups Informed

Legal support, legislative advocacy, training programs and risk management services are additional offerings from the LGC. It also publishes a variety of educational and informational materials. These include regularly published newsletters—each targeted at employer group decision-makers, benefits administrators and/or wellness coordinators—plus the following publications:

Knowing the Territory: A Survey of Municipal Law for New Hampshire Local Officials (published annually)

The Basic Law of Town, Village and School District Budgeting (published annually)

New Hampshire Municipal Officials Directory (published annually)

Important Dates for Local Officials Calendar (published annually)

Legislative Bulletin (published weekly during the State of New Hampshire’s legislative session)

Wage, Salary and Benefits Survey (published annually)

New Hampshire Town and City magazine (published 10 times annually)

Year-Round Educational Workshops

As part of our mission to serve as an educator and trainer of skills as well as an informational resource, LGC offers a variety of health and risk management seminars and trainings, including the following:

Driver Training

Health and Safety Seminars

Personal and Professional Development

Management/Organizational Development

Risk Management and Supervision Training

The LGC Academy

Benefits training and claims analysis for groups are also available upon request. Additionally, LGC partners with the Antioch New England Institute to annually host the Local Government Leadership Institute certificate program for New Hampshire’s local government administrators, managers and supervisors.

Annual trainings and workshops available to NHMA members include the following:

Spring Local Officials Workshops

Fall Budget Workshop

Fall Law Lecture Series

Winter Training for Town Meeting and School District Meeting Moderators

Last, but certainly not least, LGC hosts a three-day Annual Conference each November that typically attracts more than 600 local government officials and staff from cities, towns, counties and schools across the state. Sixty-five sessions were featured at last year’s conference, which covered relevant topics such as finance, governance, health and safety, human resources, land use and environment, schools and technology—all aimed at offering helpful tools and information for attendees to better deal with pressing issues at hand. The conference also spotlights hard work and achievements through its annual Excellence in Annual Report Awards and Municipal Volunteer of the Year Awards.

‘One-Stop Shopping’ Benefits

As both an NHMA member and TRiM program participant, the Town of Newbury is able to take advantage of what Town Administrator Dennis Pavlicek calls LGC’s “one-stop shopping" approach to offering programs and services. “We can just pick up the phone and get answers quickly," says Pavlicek. “I’m not sure all municipal officials realize everything they can get from NHMA and LGC for a small amount of membership dues but it’s benefiting our town greatly," he adds.

Lynn Sperl is a Communications Specialist with the New Hampshire Local Government Center.